PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Mike Phillips, President and Co-Founder of Urban Cat League
5:33:04
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3 min
Mike Phillips, representing Urban Cat League, shared the organization's success in reducing feral cat populations in Hell's Kitchen through affordable spay/neuter programs. He emphasized the current challenge of high veterinary costs hindering similar efforts elsewhere in NYC.
- Urban Cat League successfully reduced large feral cat colonies to zero in Hell's Kitchen over several years.
- Access to affordable spay/neuter services was crucial to their success, costing about $15,000 for 200 cats in the past.
- Current veterinary costs in Hell's Kitchen have skyrocketed, with male neuters costing $800 and female spays $1250, making similar efforts prohibitively expensive today.
Mike Phillips
5:33:04
Hello, Mike Phillips, president and co founder of Urban Cat League.
5:33:08
Before I start, I just wanted to commend and thank you all on the committee for your astute questioning earlier in the hearing.
5:33:16
It's clear that you understand all catch 20 twos that we confront, and it's deeply appreciated.
5:33:22
In house kitchen, what time is it?
5:33:24
4 o'clock on Friday, there are no large pre roaming cat colonies in house kitchen.
5:33:30
In the nineties, it turned to the century.
5:33:33
We had several very large feral cat colonies, most notably 85 cats on the railroad tracks in front of the Jacob Javits Center.
5:33:43
We humanely reduced that colony to 0.
5:33:46
It took us several years to do it.
5:33:48
In 2003, a group of neighbors in house kitchen we incorporated.
5:33:53
And with with the mission to span neuter every cat with 4 paws on the ground in Olive Hills Kitchen.
5:34:00
It took us several years to do it, but we had a secret weapon.
5:34:05
The council member, she mentioned the wild bird fund.
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One of the founders of the Wild Bird Fund, Karen Heigard.
5:34:11
She ran a vet clinic.
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She was the manager of a vet office on the upper west side.
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She thought our mission was wonderful and commendable.
5:34:21
She gave us unlimited Spain Nuder at at a price that we could afford.
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Now in house kitchen, our vet practices are all owned by corporations.
5:34:35
When we did our 200 cats, to get to all the a 100% Spaniard with the colonies, we paid about $15,000 for 200 cats.
5:34:47
Now in house kitchen, the vet practice closest to where I live, they charge $800 for a male neuter and $1250 for female space.
5:34:58
It would take us about a $130,000 today to do what we call getting to a kitten free zone.
5:35:07
We have the luxury of being in sort of a maintenance mode now in house kitchen.
5:35:13
Don't understand me.
5:35:14
We have a constant stream of abandoned animals on the street but we pick them up as soon as we can.
5:35:19
We get them spayed and neutered, notably at someone read testimony from Andy Kaplan, the founder of the Toby Project.
5:35:27
We take cats to his clinic, very reasonably get them spayed and neutered, and we get them adopted.
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They don't land on the street and start reproducing and gravitate to a large feral cat colony.
5:35:39
So the only difference the people here in this room, they're working just as hard as we did, even harder.
5:35:46
The only difference is They have their hands tied behind them.
5:35:50
We had access to unlimited Spay Nuder when we needed at a price that we could afford.
5:35:56
This is such an eminently solvable problem, but that's the THAT'S THE ENCOURAGING THING ABOUT THIS WITH ENOUGH SPANUDEAU.
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THEY COULD ALL DO THE SAME THING.